Chinese fans of the wildly popular LINE FRIENDS characters will be flocking to JD.com to get their fill of the popular character-themed merchandise. To celebrate the promotion, the e-commerce giant has also released a new micro movie with its own mascot Joy joining in with the LINE FRIENDS characters.

LINE FRIENDS, a series of animated characters, originated as stickers on the messaging app LINE. The resulting character brand has amassed a global fanbase, especially in China, where consumers can frequently be found sporting LINE FRIENDS-themed merchandise or playing LINE FRIENDS-themed games.

JD has designated August 10 as the inaugural “LINE FRIENDS DAY”. On the day, the JD.com homepage will temporarily be LINE FRIENDS-themed. In addition, discounts will be offered for a range of LINE FRIENDS merchandise, including LINE FRIENDS-branded products from some of JD’s brand partners. JD has also collaborated with LINE FRIENDS to design a series of limited edition travel cups that will exclusively be available for purchase on JD.

An acknowledgement of the widespread popularity of the brand in China, JD is also bringing its LINE FRIENDS celebration offline in Beijing, home of JD.com’s headquarters. In the city’s popular Sanlitun district, fans of the brand will have an opportunity to visit a pop-up store, where they can either make purchases in-store to take home immediately or place orders directly on JD.com, and benefit from JD’s rapid delivery logistics. In addition, hundreds of JD’s red delivery trucks and employee shuttle buses will bear an eye-catching LINE FRIENDS-branded design.

“We are sure that our first annual LINE FRIENDS DAY will be warmly welcomed from fans across JD’s huge user base”, said Jipeng Men, head of marketing at JD.com. “This event demonstrates how we combine our online and offline marketing capabilities to help brands tap into their fanbase and reach more consumers. Coupled with the universal appeal of the LINE FRIENDS characters, we are sure this partnership will be a huge success.”

Special promotions like LINE FRIENDS DAY are another way JD.com is helping brands boost sales to its over 300 million customer base. Last November, JD held a special promotion around the release of the highly anticipated Justice League film’s release in China. The event included a promotion on JD.com and a cameo in a Justice League-themed micro movie by JD’s Joy mascot.